The David Pakman Show - 12/17/24: The oligarchy grows as Bannon threatens media imprisonment

Episode Date: December 17, 2024

-- On the Show: -- International students are being warned to return to the US before Trump's inauguration, and visa holders are being advised the same way -- Donald Trump and RFK Jr will consider ending the childhood vaccination program -- Steve Bannon calls for the prosecution and imprisonment of media figures, and suggests Trump run again in 2028 -- Senator Bernie Sanders concedes that the US is indeed already an oligarchy, and getting worse -- A recent clip of Donald Trump talking about buying apples at the grocery store reminds us that the elites have no idea what normal people are going through -- Donald Trump's deportation plan, if carried out, will destroy the American economy -- David announces that he will stop deliberately mispronouncing the names of people he does not respect -- Widespread reports claims that Donald Trump's nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, is bombing during her meetings with Senators on Capitol Hill -- An ABC news affiliate is the latest to promote "things in the sky" fearmongering, this time struggling to identify Venus -- On the Bonus Show: Trump suing Des Moines register, fake electors from 2020 casting his 2024 votes, DC woman fired for saying she wouldn't serve Trump officials, and much more... 👩‍🎓 The 431 Exchange: Help us reach our goal by donating at https://431exchange.org/pakman 😁 Zippix Toothpicks: Code PAKMAN10 saves you 10% at https://zippixtoothpicks.com 🪒 Henson Shaving: Use code DAVIDP for free shave cream at https://hensonshaving.com/davidp 📰 Subscribe to The Washington Post for just $0.50/week at https://washingtonpost.com/pakman 🖼️ Aura Frames: Use code PAKMAN for $35 OFF & free shipping at https://auraframes.com/pakman -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- Pakman Discord: https://davidpakman.com/discord -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave a Voicemail: (219)-2DAVIDP

. welcome everybody lots of authoritarianism and creeping fascistic ideas that we have to talk about today universities around the country are now warning their international students who are away for winter break basically telling them hey I know you're on winter break and all, but you may want to sort of hustle back to the United States and get into the country before Donald Trump is inaugurated later in January, puts that hand on the Bible again.

And who knows what he does with regard to the student visas on which many of these international students have legal status here in the United States. Donald Trump has made it clear that just because someone has a form of legal status, that doesn't mean that he respects it. And it doesn't mean that he thinks you should be here. We of course saw this with the Springfield, Ohio migrants who have temporary protected status. They are here legally to the extent that they have claimed asylum and their cases are being adjudicated. Trump doesn't like that.

It has nothing to do with Biden or Harris. Of course, this is based on an infrastructure of law that has been around since the early nineties granting temporary protected status. And Trump is talking about certainly not renewing that status and maybe even better, according to Trump, eliminating it altogether, given that. And we think back, of course, to the first time that Donald Trump took office, where he wasted no time sort of slamming the door on a lot of people with that majority Muslim country travel ban. Remember, we can't call it a Muslim travel ban because it was not about religious belief. It was about country travel ban. Remember, we can't call it a Muslim travel ban because it was not about religious belief. It was about country of origin. But of course, it only targeted

countries that are majority Muslim. Anyway, now schools of all places are trying to be proactive and good for them. It's better to be proactive than reactive. And they're warning these students that if you don't hurry back, it's conceivable that you could get stuck outside of the country during the next immigration crackdown 2.0 that will include the militarized mass deportations and so many other things. And the schools are saying, we won't be able to help you if that happens. Now, in addition to this, we are also seeing immigration lawyers advising people with valid work visas. If you are away for the holidays for vacation for the end of the year, you also may want to rush back to the United States and get back on us soil before Donald Trump's inauguration. Justin just in case.

We all remember how the first term of Trump started, which was people will were shut out at airports. Remember the chaos of people arriving, people on planes when the majority Muslim Muslim majority country travel ban went into effect, landing and being in this. It's almost like Tom Hanks in terminal kind of situation. Students, workers, families were separated. And the principle at play for which schools are saying, get here now. And for which, uh, uh, employee employers are saying, get here now, if you have a valid work visa is that it is harder to deport someone once they're here. If they have legal status than it is to just slam the door in their face at customs and say, you've got to go back to

your country. And that's why schools and employers are saying it might be a good idea to get here before January 20th. It's not really a paranoid conspiracy theory because we know what happened during Donald Trump's first term. It's the lived reality from 2017 and the dread that then lasted four years and that we might have for four years again and wondering what level of inhumanity will the tactics employed display other schools, not episode. So we have a list of schools here with the most international students and it's NYU, Northeastern Columbia, Arizona state. You know,

it's a long list. Not every one of these schools is choosing to draw attention to themselves because that's the other risk. If you start putting out statements and then they go public, we're urging people to get back here and get back here quick. The risk is you bring attention onto yourself. And there are some schools who are saying we're not going to say anything. Hopefully nobody will pay attention to us and all of our students will be able to get

back here. But it's a sort of better safe than sorry approach. And it's a humiliating reminder of what is likely coming for the next four years. There is also a real contradiction here, as is often the case with MAGA, between the image of America as a nation of immigrants and the reality of telling people who have obtained legal status, hey, you might want to hurry back here before the political climate sours once again. And the U.S. is a country that prides itself on being the land of opportunity. And then you see these warnings from schools and you say, yeah, land of opportunity, very precarious, depending on where the political winds are and how they are shifting.

And everything becomes fragile when Trump comes into power. The Paris climate agreement, we were part of it. Trump says, I don't like it. The Iran deal, Iran didn't violate it. Trump says, I don't like it. We're getting out. Shared defense of NATO allies. Of course we do that. Well, Trump says, no, I don't know. I just're getting out shared defense of NATO allies. Of course we do that.

Well, Trump says, nah, I don't know. I just don't think that they're paying their fair share. If Trump doesn't like it, then he just goes back on the word of the United States. Now there's one other angle here. You know how Trump is the economy guy. This is another example of how the policy is not good for the economy. Later in the show, we're going to do a much deeper dive about the disastrous effect on the economy. If Trump were to deport

every undocumented immigrant, it would be a disaster for the economy. We've already talked a little bit about how bad for the economy, deporting immigrants is both legal and undocumented. We've talked about the blanket tariffs being bad for the economy. The story that's building here is that despite the bill of goods that Trump was able to sell to his base and even to some people who were not really in Trump's base, but they weren't sold on Kamala Harris, the policies that he sold are terrible for the economy. And these bans are also bad. These restrictions and uncertainties don't just affect the students themselves, but they hamper research innovation.

They foment the brain drain where if Trump were successful at keeping some of these international students out, I mean, just think about it. The people from around the world that are getting into NYU, Northeastern Columbia, all these schools, these are people who, if they go to school here, they often will stay working here and they participate in innovation and in the economy. And instead we're saying, take, take the smarts and go somewhere else. So that's where we are. It's a disturbing reality, but it's what we might be facing for the next four years. That's with college students. Let's

now go a little younger and talk about younger kids. The latest from the Trump circus is that Donald Trump is planning on having a big discussion with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is nominated to be Trump's secretary of health and human services about do we really want to continue the child vaccination program that has been active in the United States for a very long time? And of course, the guy that's going to have a say in this with Trump is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the same RFK Jr. who once sat at dinner with me and ate a baked potato with his hand. I've never seen anyone do this, but more substantively, the same RFK Jr. who spent years pushing debunked vaccine conspiracies, including that there's a connection between vaccines and autism, one of the most studied

and debunked claims out there. And he is going to have a say about whether we keep or end the childhood vaccination program, which would, of course, toss out decades, nearly centuries of science based public health policy on a whim. Trump's reasoning is he thinks we need to see the numbers on this autism thing. We have a quote here. This is again from Donald Trump's written interview with time magazine. Don't worry. Trump didn't do the writing. He talked and what was, what was published was transcribed. Uh, Trump was asked during this interview, uh, I just want to ask you a quick question about RFK Jr., who is a noted vaccine skeptic. If he moves to end childhood vaccination programs, would you sign off on that? Trump's answer, not exactly a profile in courage.

Trump says we're going to have a big discussion. The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there's something causing it. Now we have talked about the supposedly growing rate of autism so many times, a huge chunk of it is we're better at diagnosing a huge chunk of it is there are now systems in place where I've, I know it's sort of crude, but when I was in elementary school, there were kids who in retrospect, I now realize we're on the autism spectrum. At the time, it was just sort of like, we don't really understand why this kid behaves this way. It's quote weird. They were often ostracized or alienated.

We didn't have a system in place to recognize and say, Hey, this is the path that we should explore and it leads to a diagnosis. So that's part of it. It also may indeed be the case that the rate of autism is growing up and going up and we're exploring reasons why that may be. Some people say microplastics, others say environmental and pollution on average, parental age, being older, all these things might be factors, but we know we have libraries of studies about vaccination and autism, and there is no link. And remember that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the guy who is going to be running if he can

get confirmed health and human services, the agency in charge of vaccine guidelines. It's like handing a flat earther the job of running NASA. I mean, it's just it's it's absurd. Experts are, of course, sounding the alarm. No vaccines would mean more measles, more disease, more death. But Trump's all about we're going to have a discussion as if this is just harmless dinner table debate about, you know, should we have pie or chocolate babka for dessert? But this is life and death. And the science has really been settled since the 90s. We have multiple phases of clinical

trials for vaccines before they are licensed. The trials start with small groups of people. Phase one, you assess basic safety. You expand it to thousands in phases two and three. You look at safety, dosage, efficacy. And even after the vaccine is approved, it's monitored extensively for safety and efficacy. These systems detect rare side effects that may not appear in clinical trials. The common side effects of vaccines are injection site pain, depending on the type of vaccine, sometimes a sort of flu-like reaction of sorts, serious side effects are rare. All of the autism vaccine stuff goes back to the late nineties when Dr. Andrew Wakefield published a study. It turned out that the study was bogus.

It was based on a dozen kids that were brought to him. It was not a random sampling. He had a financial conflict with a potential measles only vaccine that would have been a great alternative to the MMR. The paper was retracted. Dr. Andrew Wakefield has lost his medical license. So we have a potentially major problem here. And this is what happens when you put the, what is it? The Fox in charge of the head now, something like that. Um, this is potentially disastrous and it seems as though there is essentially no bottom to what is going to be considered with some of this stuff. I would love it if Trump would just go, yeah, we're not going to do that, that we're not going to do. There is a palpable desire for overt authoritarian fascism that you can just sense in the air, almost like smog. And at the center of it with a lot of these bright ideas is former Breitbart

propagandist sort of Trump acolyte, Steve Bannon. Steve Bannon spoke at the Young Republicans Club over the weekend. What a group, what a group. And one of the things that Bannon demanded there was the imprisonment of journalists who need to essentially be taught a lesson. And here's Bannon explaining it. And as, as I often say, when we look at these declarations, if there was no broader will to do this stuff, we might be able to write off Bannon's words as mere idle speculation. But Trump listens to Bannon. These are the people who are going to be at the center of power. And that is absolutely terrifying. Listen to this. This is what they voted for. Many of them a plurality. And I guess it's what they're going to get. This is dangerous stuff. Speaker 4

they never in a million years thought we'd be back in power and they need to learn what populist nationalist power is on the receiving end. I mean, investigations, trials and then incarceration. And I'm just talking about the media. Wow. Should the media might where's the viceroy? Should the media be included in the vast criminal conspiracy against President Trump and his followers?

Should Andrew Weissman on MSNBC and Rachel Mata on all of them? We want all your emails, all your text messages, everything you did, you colluded in a conspiracy with Merrick Garland, Matthew Colangelo, Lisa Monaco and Jack Smith. Now, of course, not only is there no evidence of any of this stuff, this is some of the worst bloodthirsty insanity we've heard from these people. This is not me saying it. Benny Thompson's on TV saying, give a committee a pardon. Lock them up and throw away the key. In the White House right now with the world on fire,

they're spending the time on blanket preemptive pardons. Yeah, to protect people from what Trump said is going to be a four year term of revenge and retribution. Wouldn't you be doing the same thing? Blanket preemptive pardons. Here's the good news, folks. Here's the good news. We've got these rats cornered. If they give the pardons, the Democratic Party is finished. Amy Klobuchar

and those people are telling you that. If they give, we dare you to give blanket preemptive pardons to anybody. If it happens, the Democratic Party is over. And if it doesn't happen, you're all going to prison. That's what the Chinese call a win win, right? This is dangerous, dangerous stuff that has been corroborated by Donald Trump. That's the critical part to understand. Remember last Sunday's interview that Donald Trump did with NBC News is Kristen Welker, where he said, oh, the people on the January

6th committee who voted one way or the other or simply for being on the committee, you know, it's always mush mouth and kind of difficult to unwind. Trump said they should go to prison. And then Kristen Welker asked Trump, I should have had the clip. Kristen Welker asked Trump, are you going to direct officials to imprison them or prosecute them? And Trump said, no, no, no. But they're going to look into it. And of course, this is the whole point of this

whole thing, which is Trump is going to hire people who already know what to do. They don't need to be told. They know what to do. That's why they're being hired. One more Bannon clip from this Republican event where he says, you know, it's not a crazy idea to think about Trump running again in 2028. Wax did that. Donald John Trump is going to raise his hand on a King James Bible and take the oath of office. His third victory, his third victory in his second term. And the viceroy, Mike Davis, tells me since it doesn't actually say consecutive that, I don't know, maybe we do it again in 28.

Right. Are you guys down for that? Trump 28. Now, of course, Trump's not running in 28. Trump, you know, the constitution is very clear. You can't serve more than two terms, but the fact that they all love this and when you ask them, some of them will kind of acknowledge it's a tongue in cheek thing to try to trigger the libs, but others will say, no, you know what? I mean it's here, here's some technicality why I think maybe he can do it or maybe he should do it. So this is not something that we should write off. Not because Trump's really going to announce in 2027. I think I'm running in 2028. I don't think that that's going

to happen. If I were a betting man, I'd bet it doesn't. But because the instinct of the party is who cares, whatever we can get away with, It's going to be a very scary four years. But I hope that some of the things I'll talk about later on today will give you a little bit of solace in what we might expect and what we can do. Make sure you're subscribed to the YouTube channel, youtube.com slash the David Pakman show. We'll take a very quick break and be right back. the way. That's what the 431 exchange is for. For so many adult learners. Our sponsor, the 431 exchange is a nonprofit that provides scholarships to adults 18 to 75 who were working to transform their lives and support families. The 431 exchange fills a vital need in Louisiana, which ranks 40th in K through 12 education. We've talked about that and that means opportunities are limited from an early age.

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Zippix nicotine toothpicks. Our sponsor Zippix makes the only nicotine toothpick on the planet that is FDA registered. You can use it anywhere. Work, restaurants, airplanes, sporting events after a meal. The toothpicks stay in a convenient little tube that goes in your pocket or on your keychain. It's way more convenient than carrying around a huge can of pouches all day or a whole bunch of gum or whatever the case may be. Zip. X nicotine toothpicks come in flavors like peppermint, watermelon, sweet wood, much, David. dot com today. Save 10 percent with the code Pacman 10 at checkout. Just remember, you must be 21 or older to order. That's ZIPPIX toothpicks dot com. Use promo code Pacman 10 at checkout for 10 percent off. That's Pacman 1 0. The info is in the podcast notes. The David Pakman show is truly an independent media program, not part of any media conglomerate,

no major funders, no matter what you think their names are. And certainly not connected to any political party. We just do this because the audience says, hey, I like this enough to watch. And some tiny percentage of those folks say, I like this enough to watch. And some tiny percentage of those folks say, I like this enough to pay and get a membership. I would love it if you signed up at join Pacman dot com. You can use the coupon code not again to save bigly off of the cost of a membership. All right. Senator Bernie Sanders really ripped the bandaid right off during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press this weekend.

Bernie warned we are in an oligarchy and we are heading deeper into an oligarchy. I would argue we've been in an oligarchy for some time. Now, if you didn't think we were already knee deep in a system where billionaires call the shots. It is getting to be even more noticeable now as Donald Trump has Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, maybe behind Putin, hanging out at Mar-a-Lago and traveling with him everywhere and suggesting little policy ideas that would be very good for Elon Musk and his companies. It's sort of like we've had our eyes on Russia shaking our heads at Putin's oligarchs while we have a growing similar situation here in the United States and the roles of friendly donors pulling the political strings that would make Machiavelli blush. We can't pretend to be the shining city on the hill when we're plugged in to the

neon sign that says open for billionaire business just the way Russia is, although maybe with a slightly different texture. Elon Musk basically bought a president. He dumped in 250 million bucks and now he's proposing and suggesting policy to Trump. And he's been put in charge of a commission that will make recommendations about what parts of government get to stay and which parts of government must go. Here is Bernie Sanders explaining it as he sees it. And I have to tell you, he's spot on. As President Trump comes into office, we have got to understand, Kristen, and this is something

I feel very strongly about, and it's not talked about enough. We are moving rapidly into an oligarchic form of society. Never before in American history have so few billionaires, so few people, had so much wealth and so much power. Never before has there been so much concentration of ownership, sector after sector, power of Wall Street, and never before in American history, and we better talk about this, have the people on top had so much political power. We can't go around the world saying, oh, well, you know, in Russia, Putin has an oligarchy. Well, we got an oligarchy here, too. And in this last election, in both parties, billionaires spent huge amounts of money to elect their candidates. Yes. Now, Here in the state of Vermont, we believe we have town meetings, one person, one vote.

That's democracy, not billionaires buying elections. Those are the issues we got to focus on. We got to rebuild the middle class. Sixty percent of our people is president. So listen, this isn't news in the sense that the U.S. hasn't been squeaky clean as a democracy for some time. This isn't news in the sense that the U S hasn't been squeaky clean as a democracy for some time. The influence of the obscenely rich individuals and corporate interests is not invented in

the Trump era. Money and power have played a role in American politics for a long time. It didn't used to be as visible and it didn't used to be as blatant. Now you could argue it being more visible is better because it allows us to better oppose it. And maybe there is something to that, but we've been on this path for decades. Political campaigns financed by a handful of plutocrats, lobbyists writing legislation, candidates running around like string puppets operated by a cadre of the ultra wealthy. The difference is that during the latest

Trump campaign, the 2024 Trump campaign, it's been like someone hit the fast forward button on the devolution into oligarchy. And suddenly it's not the same old influence game. It's the VIP room at Mar-a-Lago where it's Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy co-chairing Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency. And of course, when you think about it, what says efficient governance more than handing the levers of power to a billionaire and a half billionaire like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy? I would argue, though, that it's worse than mere oligarchy and it's worse than Bernie Sanders is saying because oligarchy is a government in which power rests in the hands of a small elite group of people. Usually it's the rich and well-connected fine. Yeah, we have that. There's

no doubt that we have that. We're not just any old oligarchy though. We have extra flavor that will make this vile stew even more rancid because we also have a kakistocracy government by the least qualified people. We've got leaders who struggle to read a briefing book. Trump's presidential daily briefing when he was president the first time around was reduced, reduced to reduced to one page with two or three bullet points and a picture. That's what Trump was capable of. So we've got an oligarchical kakas stocracy.

It's also a kleptocracy government by those who seek status and personal gain, often at the expense of the governed. What Trump is seeking and what the people he's appointing plan to do is what's best for them, not what's best for farmers in Iowa. Actually, they got screwed the first time around and it'll probably happen again. Not for the average consumer, as every economic policy Trump suggests will likely drive prices up rather than down. So we have a kleptocratic, kakistocratic oligarchy, and the United States has been edging towards being ruled by the few for a long time with Trump back at the helm. We are just shredding any pretense of a broad

based democracy. And then you mix in the least qualified people calling the shots and then people wanting to use public office as a personal piggy bank. You end up with a system that is the disastrous grim trifecta of decay. Bernie is right. My question, of course, would be, do these MAGA people even remember what the founding fathers had in mind? Because we have fallen very, very far from that. I was watching a couple of videos last night and I was reminded that these elites have no damn idea what real people are going through, what the average person is going through. I'll kind of, I'll explain it to you as I thought about it. I first came across this video of Donald Trump

accepting being the time magazine person of the year. And Trump tries to describe what a woman experienced when she went to the grocery store. And as you hear Donald Trump explain this, you realize this guy's never been to a damn grocery store. He doesn't really know how it works. He's never shopped for groceries. Trump tries to explain that a woman wanted three apples, I guess it was, and then realized the apples are too expensive. So he said she went and put one back in the fridge. Trump has no idea what it's like to go grocery shopping. Listen to this oil and gas. There is no country in the world that has more. We're number one. I brought it to number one during my first term in terms of production.

We're going to be number one plus. We'll do numbers that nobody will really see before. And when that happens, prices are going to start coming down because people can't afford their groceries and they're going to be affording their groceries very soon. Here we go. I tell the story about a woman who an old woman, an old woman, no money, went to a grocery store, had three apples. She put them down on the counter and she looked and she saw the price and she said, would you excuse me? And she walked one of the apples back to the refrigerator and came back to pay for the two apples. And she left with two apples. And the woman at the counter said that was so sad. And when I heard about the story, I said that should never happen. Anyone who has shopped for groceries knows that this story doesn't make any sense.

It's not the counter. It's the cash register. The apples are sold by the pound. You don't put them down and realize how expensive they are. If we are to say, well, it was at the register and they were weighed. And then the woman realized, oh, I've got three pounds of apples. It's too much. First of all, they don't go in a refrigerator.

Secondly, you don't have to go and put them back. The cashier will just take it. And then later they restock it. It's the little details. But Trump has no idea what the day to day is like, even of going to a grocery store. I would suggest to you that this highlights a broader issue when the people making policy and saying, do we need this program or not? It doesn't seem like we need it.

This level of being out of touch with the daily experience of average Americans makes them completely unable to decide policy in a way that really relates to what people are experiencing. If you don't even know how something as mundane as grocery shopping works, how on earth are you going to be able to say, you know, like the meeting with Elon Musk and Republicans last week, maybe we'll cut social security benefits. Maybe the people getting 1700 bucks a month, they could get by on 1550. It doesn't sound like a big difference. $150. Well, when all you have is 1700, it is a big difference. And we've seen other examples of this. Remember the crude it a fiasco with Dr. Oz, where he doesn't seem to understand what is in crude it a,

and he's using the word crude it a. And also he doesn't even know the name of the grocery store that he's in. Remember this incident, some vegetables for crudite, right? So here's a broccoli. That's two bucks, not a ton of broccoli there. There's some asparagus. That's $4, right? Carrots. That's four more dollars. Why you need two pounds of carrots for a crudite when you could just buy a carrot for 10 cents? $10 of vegetables there. And then we need some guacamole. That's $4 more. And she loves salsa. Yeah, salsa there. $6 must be a shortage of salsa. Guys. Of course, salsa. I've never seen salsa in crudite. That's $20 for crudite. And

this doesn't include a tequila. I mean, that's outrageous. So anyway, you know, Dr. Oz, he uses this term crudite, which it just comes off a little weird. He says that he's in Wegner's, which is not a store. There's Wegmans and there's probably something else. He has no idea what's in a crudite. He doesn't realize you don't need to buy two pounds of carrots for crudite. They have loose carrots. It's a total disconnect from the everyday experiences of average voters, particularly where he was running in Pennsylvania. When leaders appear out of touch, it diminishes their credibility and the public's confidence in their ability to actually deal with these issues.

These might just be gaffes, but it perpetuates and reminds us of the notion that political elites are insulated from the challenges of ordinary citizens. And this just widens the gap between where people are and what elected officials believe they need to do. And this detachment from everyday concerns starts to become a focal point in political campaigns. It influences voter perceptions. It influences outcomes. Now what's remarkable about Trump is somehow Trump doesn't even know how grocery stores work. He remains immune to the backlash

that usually flows out of these situations. Trump's a billionaire with a private jet, gilded penthouses, a life of luxury his entire life. He's been kept away from the very people who now make up his base. He should be the poster child for elitism and should be rejected out of hand. But somehow he is convinced supporters that he's an every man who understands their struggles, even when he obviously doesn't. And maybe it's the unpolished speaking style, his ability to weaponize grievances, his ability

to come up with cheap insults about his political opponents, whatever. But even the incident of the woman put the apples back in the fridge from the counter just reminds us this guy is completely removed from everyday life. And we have an unparalleled disconnect right now between the average person and the average elected official at the federal level that's making these decisions that can't possibly can't possibly lead to policy that makes sense for the average American. Will they blame Trump is the question.

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So here's the solution. Razors produced by Henson have a blade that extends only point zero zero one three inches past the shave plane. And that means no blade movement, more comfort before and after The David Pakman Show David Pakman dot com. place is the blade itself. The razor will last you a lifetime better for your wallet, much better for the planet. It's time to say no to subscriptions and yes to a razor that will last you a lifetime. Go to Henson shaving dot com slash David P to pick the razor for you and use code David P to get a free shave cream with your razor. Just remember to add the shave cream to your cart. The link is in the description. Thank you, David. time. You can also sign up for the posts for you newsletter, which will send you your own roundup of stories each evening based on what you care about and have read.

If you're in a rush and you need to catch up quickly, the posts newsletter called the seven is a great commute read sent each weekday morning. Also available as a podcast with the incoming Trump administration. It is never been more important to pay attention to what's going on in DC. All right. Let's get into this, which I'm sort of disgusted that I even have to cover. Um, the incoming Trump administration's plan for mass deportations, it's not just an enormous moral failure. This is a ticking economic time bomb that could blow up the entire American economy.

Now I know that some people are going to say, David, you're exaggerating. The facts are irrefutable and the history is completely clear for anybody willing to open their eyes. So let me break down how this plays out. And hopefully this will talk some sense into the right wingers who believe that morally it's right to deport every undocumented immigrant. If you care about the economy, maybe you'll consider that as well. We're going to look at this industry by industry and we're going to look at the ripple effects of um, what Trump's deportation plan would do.

Industries that depend on undocumented immigrants are going to be decimated. Take agriculture right now. Undocumented immigrants make up between 50 and 70% of America's farm labor force. Guess what happens without them? Fields of produce sit and rot unharvested and wasted. This isn't some left wing fantasy. It's what happened in Georgia in 2011. Harsh anti-immigration laws led to this huge labor shortage and farmers just sat around watching as $140 million worth of crops just never made it out of the ground. That is one single state. Now multiply that across the entire country. And you're looking at a very bleak economic picture. And of course that will lead to the price of groceries going up.

Trump promised down. Now he's acknowledging not so easy. Grocery prices will go up. The industry of building construction, same story. 13% of construction workers are undocumented. These are the people putting up buildings where you will either live or work or shop or go to the doctor's office or whatever the case may be. You remove them. It doesn't magically create American workers to fill the gap. Sure. Eventually you may be able to do that, but not right away. What you will get instead are stalled projects, skyrocketing housing prices because we're building fewer homes and slowed economic growth. It's a lose lose. And of course, prices go up. That's the theme. The hospitality industry, restaurants, hotels, resorts,

they all depend heavily on the undocumented workforce. When the undocumented workers vanish, small businesses, and I'm talking about, you know, the family run corn or diner, not just the big chains, they will struggle to find staff. Over time, the result is fewer services and higher costs for consumers. So this is the economy grinding slower and slower because we pull out a critical gear. So now let's address the folks who think that the deportations actually save money because we don't devote resources that we currently devote. If we get all the undocumented immigrants out, all of a sudden we save a bunch of money. Undocumented immigrants pay about $12 billion a year into social security money. They will never get back. They pay in, they won't get the money out. It funnels money into your eventual social

security benefits. That's a net positive. It's propping up a system that many Americans depend on to retire. Undocumented immigrants pay nearly $12 billion in state and local taxes each year. They are funding your schools, your roads, your fire and police. You kick them out. What happens to the money? It's gone. Can you replace it? You can replace it if you want. The American taxpayer will end up holding the bag again. Costs go up. Now, I do think it's worth saying something here about crime because we've all heard Trump's fear mongering about immigrants and crime. This is where the data is crystal clear.

Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, commit crimes at lower rates than Americans born here in the United States. States with larger immigrant populations often have lower crime. We've looked at the data. When you launch these indiscriminate deportation sweeps that Trump claims he's going to launch, you drain resources from focusing on real threats. It's counterproductive. It destabilizes communities. It creates a climate of fear, which helps nobody. And if you don't believe this could happen at a

large scale to the economy, look at the history. Alabama in 2011 passed a draconian law called HB 56 and it forced undocumented workers to flee. The agricultural sector lost $10 billion in a single year, far more than the undocumented labor force was costing the state. Consider post-Brexit Britain. Strict immigration policies led to massive labor shortages. In 2022, British farmers left over 60 million pounds of crops to rot. That's exactly what I'm saying will happen here. It's happened in Georgia. It happened in Alabama.

It happened in Britain. Hotels, restaurants, health care, trying to find staff, driving up costs, services get worse. And so what we have here is a situation where we're anti-immigrant ideology starts to Trump economic common sense. Everybody's going to lose. Remember Arizona's SB 1070 law, the show us your papers law construction slowed. The state's GDP went down and it was so bad that you even had Republican business leaders, not exactly, you know, radical left-wingers saying this was not a good idea. This hasn't worked out. So the bottom line is that if it succeeds, this massive militarized deportation policy is not going to make America great. It's going to sabotage the economy just to fulfill or satisfy

a xenophobic agenda. And the irony is painful because you know who will suffer. The farmers are going to suffer. The small business owners are going to suffer. Everyday Americans who might be cheering the idea of the deportations, they will be feeling the consequences first and hardest and paying more for stuff. What do you think? I want to hear from you. Do supporters of these policies understand the economic damage or is the rhetoric simply too blinding to them? All right. I have an announcement to make. I agonized over this. I've decided I am no longer going to intentionally mispronounce people's names. I've been doing a lot of soul searching, a lot of agonizing for a while now, you know, for years, if there was someone I didn't respect in a small, silly way,

I would show that by mispronouncing their names, just poking fun a little bit, because I believe they deserved scrutiny. I don't want to take myself too seriously. I've always believed in humor to highlight absurdity, but I think something has shifted. And some of you have written to me about it. We now have people like Tulsi Gabbard, who I would sometimes refer to as Tulsi, potentially going to be the director of national intelligence. She, I know, has former

staff from when she was a Congresswoman who would watch this show, who follow what I say. I'm not just kind of like cracking jokes into the void. There are people in the circles of some of the folks whose names I mispronounce that follow the show. And I do think that although it's going to be difficult, I'm going to have to reprogram myself from saying Tulsi to say Tulsi. I do think it's probably the right thing at this point. So I'm going to make an effort. No more Tulsi Gabbard. No more Jimmy Dore.

No more Laura Ingraham. When I first started kind of mocking their names, it felt like a clever shorthand just to kind of signal I don't buy into their brand of nonsense. But I'm realizing now the show is not at a place where I think that that makes sense. And I want to focus on policy. There's a reason that Tulsi Gabbard should not be DNI, and it's that she seems more sympathetic to the desires of Russia than what's based, uh, what's better for the United States. She seems to sympathize more with Bashar al-Assad than Bernie Sanders in terms of what makes

sense from a governance standpoint. So I don't want to turn their names into a punchline. I might reserve the right to still do Trump because remember, sometimes Trump mispronounces his own name, like when he called himself President Trump. So I may occasionally do that, but I don't respect these people any more than I used to. But I think it's the time to move on from the mispronunciations. Let me know what you think. Info at David Pakman dot com. Leave a comment here. I guess if there's rage and fury and people want the mispronunciations, I'd reconsider. But I don't think so. I think this is the path forward and very relevant because after

the break we will be talking about the latest bombing, not a literal bombing, just like a failure by Tulsi Gabbard when meeting with senators. The best gifts should really feel like they were picked out just for you, which is why I love aura digital picture frames during the holidays because you can give it to mom or grandpa. You can give them the same gift, but personalize it with their favorite pictures. I've given these to so many family members now. Sometimes I'll preload it with pictures of my daughter or sometimes I'll preload it with different things.

Depends who I'm giving it to. It is a really great gift instead of, you know, cuff links. Okay, fine. Socks. This is really great. Uh, the New York times called aura, the best digital photo frame, very easy to see you next time. Save on the perfect gift by visiting or a frames dot com to get thirty five dollars off or as best selling Carver Matt frames by using the promo code Pacman at checkout. That's a you are a frames dot com and use code Pacman for thirty five dollars off. The link is in the podcast notes. Trouble in paradise for former Democratic Congresswoman turned MAGA suck up Tulsi Gabbard as a growing number of reports, including this one from the Hill, are claiming that her meetings on Capitol Hill with the very senators who will decide does she get confirmed

or doesn't she have not gone well? Her week, we might be able to say that her trip through the halls of Congress was about as smooth as a pogo stick ride over a minefield. And as she met with senators last week, word spread very quickly that her so-called wooing of lawmakers looked a lot more like a standup comic bombing on open mic night. Senators, senatorial aides, basically anyone with functioning ears and eyes seem to find Tulsi's charm offensive, neither charming nor particularly offensive.

It was all just sort of sad. One source familiar with the meetings said, quote, she was proving to be a little shallow, like a house member talking at a hearing and not someone who needs to provide the president's daily intelligence briefing. That is not a surprise. Tulsi Gabbard has no business being director of national intelligence, none whatsoever. And I think we would all agree that were it not for her about face going from supposed left leaning Congresswoman, even though she was always kind of a reactionary libertarian, more than a real left winger,

even when she was nominally a Democrat. The only reason she's been nominated is because she did a very public 180, denounced everything about the Democratic Party that she once stood behind and said that Maga is the way and Trump is the guy she trusts over Biden and over Kamala Harris to be president of the United States. It's not because she has any qualification or knowledge with regard to national intelligence. They'll often vaguely say, oh, she was, you know, she served the military. Does that make you qualified to be director of national intelligence?

And what seems to be sort of coming to this floating to the surface during these meetings with Republican and other senators is that she doesn't really know anything. Two Senate Republicans echoed the concerns on the condition of anonymity. One said, quote, I've heard that she's not very well prepared. And another said that these were BS sessions, her meetings with with senators on Capitol Hill. So the rumors are swirling. Tulsi may quietly be ushered out before the fiasco goes further. This one, it seems as though this one would have fewer fireworks than the Matt Gaetz very public implosion. You know, Gaetz had problems that were of a different kind of caliber than Tulsi Gabbard. Ga Gates's problem was endless allegations of statutory

rape and sex trafficking of underage women across state lines, crazy stuff. And it just was publicly clear this guy can't get confirmed. The Tulsi Gabbard thing is taking on a little bit of a different atmosphere because it's senators meeting with her, seemingly going in with an open mind, not going in kind of like the public stuff about her is so bad we can't possibly vote for like with Gates, meaning her with a relatively open mind and then saying she doesn't seem to know anything. She doesn't seem to be prepared. She doesn't seem to be taking this seriously because she's probably not.

She wants to be at the UFC fights with Trump like she was some weeks ago. She wants to be part of the inner circle. That's all that this is really about. And we all know she would never be nominated as DNI if she were still a Democrat and this were a Democratic president building his or her cabinet because she simply isn't qualified. My hope is that she quietly steps back, withdraws, and that maybe we can get someone at least more qualified. Although remember, with Trump, the replacements are often just as bad. When Gates bailed and Trump replaced Gates with Bondi, it's a disaster.

And the primary thing is loyalty. Bondi will be just as loyal to Trump as Gates would have been. So let's hope that the tool C nomination evaporates. It seems that Republican senators are kind of getting wise to the whole thing. All right, this, this you have to see. I can't even believe I am playing this for you. I have another one of these videos, this one from ABC seven of a suspicious object in the sky. Folks, this is Venus. I something something has to be done about this. The drones, the UAVs, the UAPs, the UFOs. This is dangerous. We're being surveilled. I'm going to play a minute of video here of ABC seven anchors talking about, listen, folks, this is what

we're talking about. We don't know what this is. It looks very weird. This is Venus, the planet. Oh, what is happening to us as a society? You know, when things like this are happening, it seems everyone starts to look up like my crew and I have been here and Mendham recording this video that you're looking at right now. We have no idea what it is, if it's a natural phenomenon, because it could be.

But this is why so many municipalities are now asking people to reach out and send their videos. Right. To them or to. This is Venus. Experts who might be able to sort out what they're seeing in the skies. But I guarantee there are so many people looking up and making those recordings because this mystery is one that needs to be solved for now we're live here in mendonborough tony eight's channel seven eyewitness news lee's saying he's wondering whether or not that might be the moon tony but you pointed out it's exactly the question people are asking what is it no yeah yeah no we're looking at the moon right now and that's nowhere near the moon. Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what do we say? What do we say about this

now? For those of you who have been writing in and saying, David, there is a real issue here with something that's up in the sky. If that is the case, you're undercutting wanting to be taken seriously when you go, what about this thing? And it's Venus. Now I want to remind you, we did these yesterday. Here is a video taken by governor Larry Hogan also of suspicious objects in the sky. It's Orion's belt. These are stars. And you can see the video panning around. Oh, what is this suspicious little dot? What is that suspicious little dot? And you can really see in this video at the 39 second mark that Orion's belt and the Orion nebula, one of the most recognizable elements in the sky goes by that. That's what these are

just stars. They're not suspicious drones. And then of course, here was the video I played for you yesterday with Josh Welko's talking about also suspicious stationary elements in the sky near Washington. I'm telling you that they're not moving. They're staying stationary. They're hovering. And of course, these are not hovering. These are airplanes on final approach to Reagan Airport in Washington, D.C., an approach that I will be doing in just a few hours. That's all that this is.

Nothing suspicious, just airplanes coming in for landing some further away, some closer. So what is this really about? Is this really about the sudden belief that there are now foreign to the US or even alien to the planet drones surveilling us? Is that really what this is about? Or is this just another one of these distractions? As I've said before, it seems logical to believe that if space faring civilizations, clearly so much more advanced than we are, we're coming here to visit from so far away that we

can't even detect them. Wouldn't they have better technology than the things that we supposedly see and some ascribe to outer space aliens or whatever the case may be? And if indeed these were spy elements from foreign countries, wouldn't it be to our advantage to say that that's what they are? Because it would simply unite the country against that and against this violation of our airspace and blah, blah, blah, blah. None of it even passes the sniff test. Now, as I've said before, sometimes things that are seen, I think it was in the fifties, there were these weather balloon tests and all of a sudden you had all of these reports of UFOs and it was briefly believed to be alien. And then we figured sudden you had all of these reports of UFOs and it was briefly believed

to be alien. And then we figured out an explanation. It was something that was being tested. We ultimately got an explanation. If that's what it is, then sure, I would love to know. But so far, the videos people have been sending me, I asked for videos yesterday. It's either stuff that has ended up being airplanes, it's stars, it's planets. That's what we're seeing right now. And I know that this anger, some of the people in, in my audience, but I am simply not seeing what a lot it's disproportionately right wingers. And I can't say, I understand why. Um, I am just not seeing it the way that, uh, that, that people are writing to me about. All right. So I am going to have hopefully some great and interesting stories for you on tomorrow's

bonus show from my trip to DC. I'm getting up to some really interesting stuff. We're going to see, um, some other, uh, content creators talk about building this left wing ecosystem, uh, going to be seeing some officials and a lot of interesting things. So I'll talk about that tomorrow. We have indeed surpassed the 4,000 pre-order, uh, benchmark for my forthcoming book, the echo machine. We are heading towards 5,000. I'm going to give you the information I have. Okay. So I'm not going to play coy. I've been told that most months, most weeks rather, if you get, if you have 2,500 pre-orders in a nonfiction book,

you that's often enough for the last slot on the new New York times nonfiction bestseller list. So like often 2,500 pre-orders gets you on the list, but at the very bottom. I'm also told that seasonally and my book is coming out in late winter, early spring. Sometimes there's more competition. So really, if we want the best shot at getting on that list, which would be amazing when you don't have, you know, I don't have CNN or some big editorial or media outlet backing my book. If we want more certainty that we will make it, I'm told 5,000 is a much better number. Now, 5,000 in a slow week might even get you halfway up the list. We have passed 4,000 pre-orders and the next goal is 5,000 pre-orders. I want to tell you again, every pre-order qualifies for a bunch of free stuff, including some stickers and a signed book plate. Any version of the book, paperback, audio book, digital book, ebook, Kindle, et cetera, they all qualify. Go to davidpakman. slash book. Pick your format, pick your version.

And remember that if you want to support your local bookstore, you can call any bookstore and simply say, I'd like to order David Pakman's The Echo Machine. They'll be able to get it for you. You'll get it on the release date. You'll get all the free stuff. Here's the critical part. Submit your preorder receipt to David Pakman dot com slash free book stuff. Don't email it to us. People we've been getting emails from people saying, here's my thing. I'll get my free stuff, right? No davidpacman.com slash free book stuff. I will see you on the bonus show. I will see you back here tomorrow.